Hate for this to be my first post but..

P

pheasant14

New member
I live in the southwestern part of the state, Mount Ayr, which is about 15 miles from the MO border. I took my kids ages 14 and 12 out for youth season the last couple days. We walked for ten hours in two days and seen ONE hen! I cant believe its gotten this bad, I am truly contemplating selling my bird dogs as the price of food is getting out of hand and whats the use of having dogs if there aint anything to hunt lol. I had a feeling it was gonna be this bad because when I would take my dogs out to run them I wouldn't see much of anything. And the local farmers all said they didnt see much during the hay season so my hopes werent that high to begin with but damn... its worse than I thought. Where the hell is DNR in all this? Don't they understand we are fast losing much needed hunting revenue in these small towns? I remember a time when celebs like Tom Seleck and Fuzzy Zellor were regular visitors to my town. The local motel and hunting lodges were booked solid november through january. All thats gone now.
 
Sorry to hear of the poor bird populations there in SW Iowa. A group of us in Kansas are working to try to prevent that from happening here as the CRP acres expire.
 
no birds

I saw lots of phez in waterloo iowa i posted on here on a thread a few weeks ago its probably like mo it has pockets of birds you can always come over to gods country KANSAS, i remember big pheasnt numbers a few years ago around victor iowa hundreds of birds would get up just cant beleive hardly none around!
 
I hunted in the Clearfield area, not far from Mnt Ayr from 1997 to 2001. Seems like the birds peaked around 1999. We used to get our limit on the opener, then were glad to get 2/hunter after that. I guess the demise of CRP is hurting things down there. I now hunt SD, get limits every day, but that might be a memory as SD is loosing CRP and the trend is not a friend. If I were you I'd go to the perserve there in Mnt Ayr and spend my time after those monster size bucks we would kick out of the ditches!
 
sorry to hear of your low bird numbers but I could never even think about getting rid of my dogs. Ever
Ever
 
depressed

I wish I had the money to go to SD or hunt on the pay to hunt places but with five kids I just dont have the extra cash. I really have to disagree about the CRP having anything to do with the pheasant population decrease. I truly believe it has more to do with the weather and predators like cyotes, hawks, bobcats and turkeys. Its just a shame that Iowa's DNR is not near as proactive as SD's. Oh, and I hate to sell my dogs and it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about, but I cant justify keeping them if there isnt anything for them to hunt. It isnt fair to them, they need to be somewhere that the birds are. I have actually started coon hunting quite a bit and it aint bird hunting, but there are tons of coon out there lol! I truly wish there were more birds out there for my kids sake. I just about cried when my 12 year old son looked at me at three o'clock today after ten hours of walking in two days and said "Dad, lets go on home, there isnt any birds out here. All this walking for nothing." :-(
 
Bring back the crp and right habitat and you will have birds again! plain and simple. I live in SW Iowa and get as many pheasants as anyone in SD,ND,or Kansas.
 
Hmmm take away thousands of acres of habitat and it's the DNR's fault there are no birds? Not sure what they were supposed to do plant them with the corn and beans?
 
So what action are you taking to improve pheasant hunting in your area? Are you a member of PF? Do you volunteer help with the local conservation board? Are you educating landowners where you hunt about the benefits of crp and buffers? I never spent a day of hunting or working the dogs for nothing even if I didn't get anything. My dogs love just getting out. Theres no crying in hunting, unless its tears of joy.
 
wish it was that easy

So bring back the thousands of acres of CRP and the birds will come back? Its not that easy my friend. Most people I know around here didnt take their land out of CRP untill this and last year. The pheasant population was falling fast a long time before that. Fact is that Iowa farmers are involved in big business with the $4 corn and pheasant numbers mean very little to them. I am a member of our local conservation group called Ringgold County Outdoor Alliance. Its like pheasants forever or ducks unlimited but its a strickly local group that supports all kinds of hunting in our county. We hired a biologist to tell us what we needed to do to get pheasant numbers up and he said we needed to plant certain kinds breeds grass buffers in fence rows and such. We spent quite a bit of money on seed this last year a planted it all over the county. Next year we are getting a bunch of pen raised birds that have special breeding that gives them a better chance of survival. It may not be much but at least its something.
 
oh, almost forgot

BTW - My kids enjoyment of bird hunting means alot to me. Some of my favorite memories are of my brother, dad, uncles and cousins out bird hunting. Had there been no birds to hunt then we probably wouldn't have been out there. So when I say it makes me sad it is for the reason that my kids may never get to enjoy the same memories I have of being in the field.... just sayin
 
We used to hunt SW Iowa every year in the Corning area. The CRP dissappeared year after year and the pheasant numbers with them.

I don't blame the farmers for trying to make a living there has to be CRP contracts and contracts attractive enough to discourage plowing and planting corn.

It is true that you have had some bad weather in recent years floods and tough winter weather. However with proper habitat their numbers will bounce back quickly. Hopefully (and most things in this life are cyclical) the trend of losing CRP will reverse. Not that I want to see a dust bowl but that was part of the reason CRP program was started to stop the erosion of marginal ground. Our politicians are mainly short sighted and we need to remind them of things like that from time to time and hopefully it sinks in.

I do hope you find a quality place for you and your sons to have a good hunt this year.
 
Thanks

I appriciate the words of encouragement. The problem with politicians and farming is that they can only see the monetary gain from the land and labor of American farmers. Conservation takes a back burner as most of main stream America has no idea what even goes in to making the food that they eat. Plain and simply put, there is no big lobby in Washington for the hunters in this country and therefore no representation.
Yes, we have had crazy weather cycles around here in recent years, and I think that the combination of weather, predator population rise and CRP loss has made for a devistating combination on our local bird population.
Oh how I yearn for the days of getting to knock down 20-30 birds in a day with my family. Watching the dogs work and being in the bush from 8 to 430.... puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. I miss it more than most people realize. Thats why I'm glad I found this forum, I figure you guys understand my anguish LOL!
 
pheasant14 said:
Oh how I yearn for the days of getting to knock down 20-30 birds in a day with my family. Watching the dogs work and being in the bush from 8 to 430.... puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. I miss it more than most people realize. Thats why I'm glad I found this forum, I figure you guys understand my anguish LOL!
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"A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things." Lord Alfred Tennyson.
 
pheasant14 said:
I appriciate the words of encouragement. The problem with politicians and farming is that they can only see the monetary gain from the land and labor of American farmers. Conservation takes a back burner as most of main stream America has no idea what even goes in to making the food that they eat. Plain and simply put, there is no big lobby in Washington for the hunters in this country and therefore no representation.
Yes, we have had crazy weather cycles around here in recent years, and I think that the combination of weather, predator population rise and CRP loss has made for a devistating combination on our local bird population.
Oh how I yearn for the days of getting to knock down 20-30 birds in a day with my family. Watching the dogs work and being in the bush from 8 to 430.... puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. I miss it more than most people realize. Thats why I'm glad I found this forum, I figure you guys understand my anguish LOL!
Click to expand...


Oh I also have to agree with you on the predators. Last year was my first time to South Dakota. We went and stayed at Pierre. There was snow on the ground the entire time. The pheasants had no cover we could see them on the ground and saw way over a thousand. We saw one predator a red fox. Here in Indiana too they just don't get it. In fact they keep bringing predators in. The best places to hunt here are guys that own large tracts of land and kill off the predators with poison in the summer. Not that thats always a good idea though because pets and or hunting dogs can eat poison too.
 
I hunted that area around Mt Ayr alot as a kid 25 years ago with my family. It blows me away that it is that bad now. Sorry to hear things have gotten so bad for you. From what I have been reading it's been more about the weather for the last several years then the habitat.
 
texasbirdhunter said:
I hunted that area around Mt Ayr alot as a kid 25 years ago with my family. It blows me away that it is that bad now. Sorry to hear things have gotten so bad for you. From what I have been reading it's been more about the weather for the last several years then the habitat.
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Its a combination of everything. CRP is getting plowed under, the past two or three winters have bad and the springs have been wet. There are less and less attractive places to hunt, but if you are a true "hunter", you will go to the end of the earth to find what you want.
 
My uncle has a farm close o Lenox, used to hunt there every year since I was 12. Three years ago we went the whole season and saw only one bird. 2200 acres, really good cover, waterways, IMO its not a matter of CRP, its a matter of birds just not being there anymore. Really sad.

My dad and I just came back from Souh D, hunted around the Watertown area on public land. We had the best time, birds were everywhere even with so much corn still out. Just had to time it right-morning before noon, and then from 3:30 to sunset for road hunting. Since we hunted public, and there was a lot of good land off the beaten path, we had very good luck. We traveled light, split the bills, and stayed at a Super 8, probably did the week trip for $500 each
 
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